Mets

March 31, 2006 - By Bill and Cal Ripken Over the past three years we have written more than 100 articles for Coach's Clipboard. With youth baseball seasons getting into full swing, this month we thought it would make sense to re-run some of the articles we think are most appropriate for this important time of your seasons. The first topic we are going to address is setting general team goals. Youth baseball coaches often fall into the trap of trying to teach too much. Remember that baseball is a simple game. In general, the teams that throw, catch and hit the best are the ones that are the most successful. What determines whether a game, practice or season is successful? Success in youth baseball should not always be about wins and losses. In fact, winning should be way down on the list of priorities. If the baseball experience is enjoyable for the kids and they learn something, as coaches, we should feel very good about that. It is imperative for coaches to set goals for their teams and to celebrate all of the successes – small or large. There are general goals that cut across all age levels and there are age-specific goals. If these goals are accomplished, regardless of the team’s final won-loss record, the season should be considered a success. Sometimes all of the goals are not attained. Circumstances beyond our control can intervene to prevent us from accomplishing some things we set out to accomplish. In these instances it is human nature for a coach to be hard on his or herself. It is important to look back at what you as a coach might have been able to do to accomplish more, but don’t beat yourself up too much about it. If the kids had fun and learned something the experience was more than worthwhile. This article is designed to discuss general goals that should be set by any amateur baseball coach. A past article discussed age-specific goals. General Goals for Coaches of All Ages There are basic goals that all baseball coaches should strive to accomplish with their teams – even coaches at the highest levels. In the broadest sense these goals are a good barometer of how successful the season was from a coaching perspective. As a coach, continually ask yourselves these questions to help determine if you are on the right track: Are the kids having fun … Baseball is a game. We stress that over and over. It should be fun. You can tell very easily whether a group of kids is having fun. Do they move quickly to the field when they arrive or do they have to be forced to play? Are they smiling when they are on the field or do they appear to be sad or bored? Is there a lot of laughter and energy or are the kids lethargic? Do they ask to stay and practice or play longer or do they want to leave early? Kids are not hard to read. If they are having fun, keep doing what you are doing. If they appear lethargic, sluggish, bored or unhappy, take a look at what you are doing and make some adjustments, remembering that kids of all ages have limited attention spans. Some suggestions for keeping the game fun: * Keep them in small groups during practices. * Keep them active and moving around. * Provide them with a variety of activities. * Turn drills into contests. * Give out prizes. * Give your players nicknames. * Create a rotation where every player gets to play every position. * Be demonstrative in a positive manner – enjoy yourself on the field! Are the kids improving? One of the most rewarding things about coaching youth baseball is getting to see the players improve. It is not a stretch to say that kids can improve each and every time they practice. At our camps we often come in contact with groups of kids who literally have trouble playing catch at the beginning of the week. By the end of the week in our afternoon games we actually will see some of these kids turn double plays. One of our past articles dealt with age-appropriate goals. There we got into a deeper discussion of motor skill development and what types of skills can be taught successfully at different ages. It is important that the skills that are emphasized are not too difficult for the kids to master. Kids have an innate desire to learn and improve. When they are successful, and those successes are celebrated, the thirst to learn more increases. As coaches we have to put the players in positions to experience success and then go out our way to point out the improvement. This sounds like an oversimplification, but just like throwing and catching, success and positive reinforcement are as important for the 8-year-old as they are for the 22-year-old. Are the kids learning? Every day at our camps we make a point to review what we did the day before. At the beginning of each session we ask questions about what was covered the previous day to reinforce the lessons and make sure the concepts were understood and absorbed. If we find that the kids are struggling with a lesson or concept, we need to spend more time on the review to make sure that they have grasped the lesson completely. If the kids understand everything we move on to a new lesson. The following day we will repeat the same process, reviewing everything that has been taught to that point. It is important for coaches to make sure their players are learning something in addition to having fun. Learning and fun go hand in hand. As kids learn and understand they get better and want to learn more. When they improve they have more fun. By keeping the kids active and being creative we can make sure that they learn while having fun. If kids are having fun they often don’t realize that they are learning or practicing, which means you can hold their attention longer. This leads to more efficient and effective practices. When coaching, especially when dealing with skills that build upon one another, it is important to review and make sure that the players have grasped the initial lesson before something that is more complex is introduced. Introducing new concepts that the players are not prepared for can lead to failure. Repeated failure often leads to frustration. Frustration can cause kids to quit playing baseball and to try something different At our camps we like to use different buzzwords to emphasize our teaching points. For example, for the soft toss hitting drill all we want the kids to concentrate on is “loose hands, quick bat.” For weight shift and hitting off of a tee we say that you have to “go back to go forward.” In the infield we catch a ground ball with a “wide base, butt down, hands out in front.” You will find these buzzwords throughout our instructional materials. Use them to help your kids understand and remember the lessons you teach them. Try to come up with some terms of your own, too, and email them to us at newsletter@ripkenbaseball.com. The bottom line is to do whatever it takes to help the players learn what you are attempting to teach them.

Making Practice Fun March 31, 2006 - By Cal Ripken, Jr. My dad, Cal Ripken, Sr., used to say, “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” He also used to say that baseball is a simple game. I grew up living and believing those sentiments, and I still do to this day. When working with kids, however, I have another philosophy that I preach in addition to those of my father: Make it fun! With a little creativity, there is no reason that baseball practice can’t be almost as fun – or even more fun – than games. If you take away the strategies and team fundamentals and then look at even the most complex plays in baseball, they can be broken down into very simple parts. A double play, for instance, is nothing more than someone fielding a groundball and throwing it to a teammate who catches it and throws it to another teammate who catches it. In its simplest terms a double play is no more than a catch, a throw, a catch, a throw and a catch. Simple, right? It is if a solid fundamental base has been developed. So, there’s no denying the need for fundamental development when we are working with baseball players at any level. What’s that you say? Fundamentals are boring? They don’t have to be. We do fundamental station and drill work every morning at our camps in four basic areas -- pitching, hitting, infield and outfield – and the kids have a ball. We make every kid go through each station because all players need to learn proper throwing mechanics (covered in the pitching station); all players need to learn how to field a groundball properly (infield station); all young players love to hit, which is the most technical part of the game (hitting station); and everyone on a baseball field, at some point, must catch a flyball or pop-up and learn to communicate effectively (outfield station). At first kids ask us why they have to go through all the stations. Even as 8-year-olds they often see themselves as pitchers, shortstops or center fielders. Another of our philosophies is to be able to explain why. There is solid reasoning behind everything we teach on the baseball field. Most times, when you can explain why, it gives you instant credibility as a coach and kids are happy to perform the tasks once they understand the spirit behind them. Once we have that out of the way, the fun begins. In our five years of running camps we have found that our methods of fundamental teaching are fun and allow for dramatic improvement even in a weeklong camp. The basic principles are: Put the kids in small groups so they get plenty of individual attention, understand their attention spans and move them to different stations after short periods of instruction and drills, and keep them active to avoid having players stand around for long periods of time. We also have found that these methods translate well when it comes to practice. Many volunteers don’t have the luxury of a full staff of assistants like we do at camp, but usually there are parents around to help. One solution is for the head coach to hold a preseason meeting to ask if one or two parents can help out at each practice. Parents can rotate throughout the season so assisting at practice does not become a burden. Practices should be geared toward a particular age group’s attention span. The youngest players should not practice for more than an hour. High school players should probably be limited to approximately two hours. Again, break the players into groups and rotate them among different stations: batting practice, baserunning, ground balls, fly balls, throwing, etc. Sometimes stations can be combined. For instance, one group can be hitting while another is working on baserunning and another is shagging hit balls. The group that is shagging can also be hit groundballs and flyballs between pitches. For older teams, if there are strategies or team fundamentals that need to be addressed, that can be accomplished together as a team, keeping in mind that kids’ attention spans vary. At some point, if they are not getting it, move on and come back to it later. Creativity is another key to keeping practice fun. Come up with creative ways to teach the fundamentals that we talk about in our newsletter, on our website and in our instructional products (books and CD-Roms available at www.ripkenbaseball.com). In fact, we would like to add to our own drill book. On the Coach’s Clipboard portion of our website (www.ripkenbaseball.com/cc), there is an area under the “Clipboard” section (accessed from the right navigation bar) that includes interactive tips. Here you can read tips from us or send us your own ideas. You also can email your drills and ideas to us (newsletter@ripkenbaseball.com). We will be compiling an online database of drills that fit within our teaching model. Remember, there are only so many drills. For kids, practicing the same drills over and over can become boring and tedious. We have found, however, that taking those same drills an introducing an element of competition increases the focus and enjoyment for the kids. Turn the drills into contests and award prizes to the winners. Keep in mind that competition drives all of us. Please use the tools and resources you will find here, along with your own creativity, to make the game fun for you, your kids or your team.

This year the North Miami Beach Optimist Little League, in conjunction with YouthPRO, will be distributing a FREE YEARBOOK to every North Miami Beach Optimist Little League child. The Yearbook will contain team pictures and other features that you and you child will treasure. We would like to offer each parent the opportunity to purchase ad space in the Yearbook. Use your ad to advertise your company, to offer congratulations to the children in the league, or just to wish your child or team good luck! Don't miss out on this chance to acknowledge this special time for your child. Reserve your ad space in the 2006 North Miami Beach Optimist Little League Yearbook now! To reserve your ad space, simply call Toll Free: 866-706-3844

Want to improve your swing on our new pitching machine? Come out to Mishcon Field this Sunday, February 19, and you can! Here's the schedule: 12:30 - training on using the machine (moved from 12:00 to 12:30) 1:00 - 1:45 - Minors Jr. - Athletics, Braves and Padres 1:45 - 2:30 - Minors Jr. - Pirates, Philles and Reds 2:30 - 3:30 - Minors - Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers and Indians 3:30 - 4:30 - Minors - Marlins, Orioles, Twins and Yankees 4:30 - 5:30 - Majors - Angles, Mets, Red Sox and White Sox 5:30 - 6:15 - Juniors